エバーさんの誕生日パーティー [Ava's Birthday Party]

Last Friday was Avaさん's birthday. 桑原さん was nice enough to make arrangements for a nice birthday party for Avaさん. I am sure she appreciated all the hard work he went through to reserve a place at a nice 居酒屋 [izakaya - Japanese style pub] in 千里中央駅 for us to celebrate her birthday.

Because my friends from high school and now in college are all such nice and kind people who celebrate birthdays with cakes and a song, I could not resist but to buy Avaさん a cake and make the grad students sing her happy birthday. Unfortunately, the cakes in Japan are a bit more expensive than they are in America. I could be really hardcore like JNfir-Ann and bake something amazing, but luckily (whew!), I had no oven. XD

The lab members were such a darlin' and they all decided to chip in for the cake at the end (even though everyone got such a tiny tiny slice). They're super cute! I will sure miss them in the states.

So we first celebrated Avaさん's birthday by surprising her with this cake:


Avaさん was being too shy to look at the camera:


While we were singing a cheerful birthday tune, she loosened up:


After work, we went to a really nice 居酒屋 and later, to a cheaper one for more drinks. It was nice of 桑原さん, 市川さん, 武田さん, 山中さん, and 野崎先生 to join us. :)

This nice 居酒屋 that 桑原さん reserved:


Avaさん's birthday drink! The first of many!!! just kidding ^^v


That cool LCD screen to the right of 市川さん is how you order!!!


市川さん got a drink that requires manual labor. HAHAHA. I believe it was a グレープフルーツサワー [grapefruit sour]:


Doesn't Avaさん look excited to try her "first" drink ever? ;)


野崎先生 claiming that he and 山中さん are twins:


I love how 山中さん is so indifferent to 野崎先生's craziness:


市川さん is calculating the bill with his crazy Japanese cellphone:


Moved to a cheaper 居酒屋:


Don't ask why, but Dave insisted to have his picture taken with these weiners:

淀川花火 [Yodogawa Hanabi]

After 姫路城, we traveled back to downtown 大阪 for the 淀川花火, which was a highly reccomended イベント (event) by both the graduate students as well as 伊達先生. We decided that it was not one we're going to miss. It's the biggest fireworks display in 大阪 which lasts about one hour in duration totalling approximately 20,000 shots of fireworks in the sky. In a very environmentally-conscious country, the birds must have been really sad that day. :D

Early Saturday evening (while we were having fun enjoying 姫路城), 市川さん and 桑原さん generously took the time to reserve a spot for us to sit by arriving at 5pm to stake out a place (with blankets to sit on, like for picnics!) for an event that started at 7pm. Lyさん was nice enough to go out the Friday before and buy a bigger blanket to accomodate all the people going to the event. Because it was a nice Saturday evening, we were joined by a lot of lab people such as 石さん, 篠田さん, 小西さん, 田中さん, and 伊達先生 and his wife (in addition to to the three mentioned above).

The fireworks display was super awesome and I had a blast! There were so many people there. It was so amazing. It's something that probably would be banned in the states just because of the major fire hazard it posed. However, that only made the whole situation more exciting!

Right before the fireworks show started, we went on a food and drink run. It was probably unwise, as most of the stands were sold out of edible goods considering it was so close to the start of the festival. It was me, Davidさん, 市川さん, 篠田さん (or was it 小西さん? my memory is failing me...), and 田中さん. We decided to be smart and go outside of this big field of emptiness in hopes of finding a close convenience store. Bad bad idea. To make a long story short, the nearest convenience store was probably still too far, all the handy vending machines in Japan were sold out of prime essentials (e.x. water & iced tea), and we ended up having split up in hopes of finding food and drink. As 市川さん, 篠田さん, and 田中さん were busy waiting in line for overpriced food far far from the field, me and Davidさん ran to the nearest vending machine that was not sold out for drinks. We got tiny, tiny bottles of water & milk tea for everyone and had difficulties carrying it (as we lacked a plastic bag and we were each carrying close to 6 bottles). When we went back to the field, the police had already started to block of area (mostly because it was getting too close to the start of the event, I think, than because of the major fire hazard concern I detailed above). After some smooth talking from 市川さん, we were able to sneak back just in time. I believe it just started as we spotted our picnic area.

They fired three ドラえもん (Doraemon) into the sky. I only caught an upside-down one and a slightly off centered one. I missed the first show, where ドラえもん was rightside up and looking perfect (darn!). Anyways, I was glad 市川さん told me about it, else I wouldn't have tried so hard to decipher the ドラえもん fireworks.

I have a few pictures of the fireworks, but I'm a bit bummed out because I lost some of my pictures due to the fact that my SD card for my camera decided to have a meltdown during the transfer of files to my computer. Unfortunately, a lot of good pictures were lost as well as precious pictures of 伊達先生 and his wife! I promised him I'd send those to him too. :( I also had good lab pictures that I lost (and had to resort to stealing from Youngさん. Ah, well... hope she will forgive.

Here's some shots of the 花火 from my camera. I had other ones where it looked like the sky was on fire... but those were lost due to technical difficulties (grr).

A mixture of people in 祭 (festival) type attire--浴衣 (yukatas) and the whole lot--littered in the crowds. Yukatas are so pretty!


A small taste of just how many people were at the festival:


Some pictures of the fireworks display (though not nearly well taken enough to depict its grandeur:




Us PRIME kids with the CMC gang:

姫路城 [Himeji Castle]

Though the posts from now forth are going to be "posted" on the date the event occurs, most it of it will be have been written at least one month afterwards. I didn't have the time to post my blogs immediately after our weekend excursions, because we played too much! However, hopefully, they are still accurate depictions of what we did (nothing too exaggerated such as 石さん jumping into 大阪 harbor and 桑原さん chasing after him, or something).

Early Saturday morning, we set out to 姫路市 [Himeji City] in 兵庫県 [Hyogo Prefecture] in hopes of finding ourselves a "real castle." 市川さん and 伊達先生 kept calling 大阪城 a fake, because the main structure burned down during World War II air raids. When we went through 姫路城 (Himeji Castle), the distinction was clear. The building was old, but still magnificent. Plus, there were no elevators and it didn't feel like a museum (which was much of what I felt while wandering thorugh 大阪城 with its nice informative televisions, models, and short skits about the history of the castle). I overheard (as I was shamelessly eavesdropping in someone else's conversation) that 姫路城 was havily damaged in a typhoon either last year or a couple years back. It was evident as a lot of the wooden support beams were heavily cracked probably due to the tension of the strong winds. However, it was very obviously that building something so tall may cause it to wear faster due to weather (considering how common typhoons are in Japan). Ah... I am glad I was able to see the castle though. :)

While we in 姫路, we crashed the お城祭 [o-shiro Festival] by accident. Because we weren't there for the 祭 (as we had a nice fireworks display to attend later that night that interested us more), we didn't stick around to take pictures or anything. There are nice pictures of the 祭 from someone else who was there though. The festival was pretty cool, because during the festival, everyone was granted free admission in 姫路城. *dances around happily for saving 600円*

Trying to pretend I am a resident of the nice castle:


How the castle corridors look:


This pictures shows the different family crests, also known as 家紋 [kamon], that can be found on the castle roof tiles. They mark the rulership of the castle and also gave an indication when parts of the castle was constructed or added. Obviously, everytime the castle exchanged rulership, it wasn't exactly prudent to spend a lot of energy to go around replacing these roof tiles, haha.


Me at the foot of 姫路城 (which is still considerably higher than the city):


The view of the city on the 8th floor of 姫路城:


The castle itself from my perspective (a feeble attempt at a camera trick):


Part of the お城祭 march:


Notice how the uniforms change with the years and change of rule of 姫路城:


We saw this guy with those chipmunk things/animals:


Look! It stands:


After we explored 姫路城, we went to the nice garden just west of the castle called 姫路城西尾屋敷跡公園 [Himeji Castle Nishi-Oyashiki-Ato Garden], also known as 古公園 [kokouen]:


Another scenic view of the beautiful garden:


The last I saw of the 祭 and basically of 姫路市 as we grabbed a quick bite to eat (yum, festival food!):

大阪城 [Osaka Castle] & Other Adventures in downtown 大阪

On Saturday, Lyさん was nice enough to accompany us on our trip of downtown Osaka. On our way to meet Lyさん, we went through a festival. It was called オーサカキング [Osaka King].


We were supposed to meet outside of the NHK building close to 大阪城, but it was too hot and we ended up seeking shelter inside the building. I thought it was pretty interesting how the NHK building (a television broadcasting station in Japan) was connected to the 大阪歴史博物館 [Osaka Museum of History].

The building in front is 大阪歴史博物館 and it is connected to the NHK building in the back by the glass dome which also serves as a lobby for both buildings.


Inside the sphere/dome lobby area:


There was an exhibition inside as well (that anime set in 鳥取... which I will fill in later):


They also had a performance like those asian dragon dancing ones:


We went into the NHK showroom, because it was air conditioned and free. Hahaha...

Me in front of the children's area (shameless, I know):


In there, we and Youngさん tried our very first television broadcast. I must say that being a news anchor is harder than it looks! You become super self conscious as you see a camera plastered on your face. Lucky for us, they had an English version for us to practice. If it was Japanese, I'm sure we wouldn't have been able to get through the first sentence in the amount of time we were given. After we recorded our broadcast, they played it back for us! It was a very unique experience. I think Youngさん has nice pictures of us broadcasting. I did not take any pictures, because I was too busy recording our broadcast. :)

The next showcase demonstrated the use of computer graphics, how you can use cloth to cover a portion of your body you wanted omited in the video. It was pretty awesome. Here's my decapitated head picture:


When we met up with Lyさん, we journeyed into our very first Japanese style castle. The castle was just as 伊達先生 stated, very modernized and museum-like. It was a shame, because though the architecture and the surrounded environment (with its crazy moats) felt very castle-like, the castle inside was basically just filled with short clips and models of the castle's history. Plus, the two staircases built right smack in the center of the castle along wit hteh addition two flights of stairs on the sides did not help bolster its authenticity.

I believe this was a picture of the inner moat:


Us in front of 大阪城:

There is a bit of a story behind this picture as well. The gift I made for our hosts at CMC was basically a picture of us in front of supposedly 大阪城 as seen in my previous post. The point was that it was supposed to be taken in front of 大阪城, because we were going to be staying in 大阪. Unfortunately, my amazing searching skills on images.google.com produced a picture of 姫路城 [Himeji Castle]. So, we tried very hard to retake the photo in front of 大阪城 to replaces the other one (which was intended to be replaced anyways, as the other picture was just photoshoped together).

There's a big canon outside the entrance of 大阪城. I have no idiea why it was there, but Lyさん persuaded me to take a picture in front of it. I found it hilarious how it looks like the canon was sticking out of my head.


Stuff you see inside the museum. Not much was translated (because they were mostly audio clips).


I forgot what it is, but I believe it has the head of a lion and a body of a fish (used to ward away evil spirits?):


Me and Youngさん on top of 大阪城:


The view on the top of 大阪城:



For lunch (which really didn't feel like lunch since we ate at ~4pm), we went to 鶴橋 [Tsuruhashi] to see the Korea town there. I have to say, considering that 大阪 has close to 1/5 of a million Korean residents, its Korea town was not terribly impressive. We've tried to verify the authenticity of the food we had in Korea town based off of Young-san's experience (as she is Korean-American). She told us that some of the dishes have been changed and modified. Of course, they still taste delicious, but a lot of the dishes were adapted into a Japanese-style (和風) cuisine.

My meal (I forgot what I ordered, unfortunately...):


Walking back from Korea town, I made Lyさん pose with her umbrella and fan:

It was raining a little outside during the late afternoon after a whole day of scortching hot heat & sunshine. Lyさん was telling us that the last two times she has visited 大阪城, it rained. It seemed like a curse, but luckily, because we visited the castle in the morning, it wasn't raining at the time we were there. :)

Later, we caught a subway down to 天王寺 [Tennouji] to explore. I think 市川さん reccomended visiting 大阪市立美術館 [Osaka Shiritsu Bijutsukan aka Osaka Municipal Museum of Art] located inside 天王寺公園 [Tennoji Park]. Unfortunately, by the time we had gotten there, everything in 天王寺区 was closed (at least the tourist attractions were). Apparently, most of the museums close around 5pm. It was probably a good thing, as 天王寺区 is a very questionable area. I hate to say it, but probably one of the poorest areas of 大阪 that I've been to. I probably saw more homeless people in 天王寺 than I did in all the other parts of 大阪 combined.

Me with 通天閣 [Tsutenkaku] behind me:


Lyさん posing for the camera:


Though we did not have an opportunity to do much else than to walk around the area, it was a good experience. The park looked really pretty from the outside (but no one really wanted to pay money to enter a park). It was definitely worth a second visit (but unfortunately,my time in Japan is limited).

Later that night, we went to Marshmallow Cafe. Davidさん tried to order a sake bomb just for the sake of seeing if they made it like the states. Unfortunately, he just ended up with a pint of beer and some gin. :D